Lars Larson: Participation trophies for all…

By Lars Larson
NW and national radio host,

Life’s about choices and Oregon made an especially bad one for kids four years ago.

Now, the chickens are coming home to roost.

The state famously decided to hand out high school diplomas, even to students who can’t demonstrate basic skills in reading, writing and ‘rithmatic.

The exemption from actual learning continues until at least five years from now…and I suspect by then it will be permanent.

Voters chose the idiot leaders who made this choice, using the pandemic as their excuse.

Only, the pandemic is long over.

Teachers not only still get paid, they get raises and schools don’t have to turn out educated children.

What could possibly go wrong.

The answer…young adults emerging from Oregon’s 14-thousand dollars per student, per year K-12 public school system ain’t going to college as much.

In fact, college-going has dropped ten percent over the last decade.

There have been drops like that across America but Oregon has fallen harder than most states.

And why not.  If Oregon has decided that all you have to do is show up…and every kid gets a participation troph…I mean diploma, if you’re telling kids actually learning things doesn’t matter, what message did you think they would take from that?